Mazda’s new premium SUVs not wooing buyers from other brands

The high-stakes ‘Mazda Premium’ gamble to roll out a whole new family of more expensive SUVs has been greeted positively by the Japanese car-maker’s Australian fans, but has not yet convinced significant numbers of premium SUV buyers to swap from other brands.

The new five-seat Mazda CX-60 mid-size SUV and seven-seat CX-90 large SUV have been on sale in Australia since July and August 2023 respectively, and their Large Product Group (LPG) siblings – the five-seat CX-70 large SUV and yet-to-be-unveiled seven-seat CX-80 mid-size SUV – will join them from late this year.

Their premium price positioning – from $60,000 to $100,000 – make the LPG models more expensive than traditional Mazda SUVs and offer the potential for more profit per vehicle sold than Mazda’s mainstream models.

But Mazda has taken a big risk to achieve that, investing in a new rear/all-wheel drive platform and – more controversially – a family of new mild-hybrid inline six-cylinder petrol and diesel engines, as well as a four-cylinder plug-in hybrid petrol/electric powertrain.

And it has done all that at a time when other brands are globally more focussed on battery-electric vehicles.

The LPG family is intended to offer existing Mazda customers a path upward from models like the CX-5 and the recently-discontinued CX-8 and CX-9.

But the pricier, more upmarket new SUVs are also intended to woo fans of premium brands such as Audi, BMW, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz to Mazda.

And right now, Mazda Australia admits these ‘conquest’ customers are not yet a big part of CX-60 and CX-90 sales.

“Yes absolutely, the majority of the customers for both of those nameplates have been existing Mazda customers moving up,” confirmed Mazda Australia marketing chief Alastair Doak.

“We always knew that would be the case because they are the easiest people for us to communicate with.

“They are still invested in the brand. They still have a relationship with the dealer and so on.

“So they are the people we are seeing the most business from.”

Doak said the percentage of conquest buyers new to the brand would rise as the existing nameplates became more established and the CX-70 and CX-80 joined the line-up.

“Having 70 and 80 as well will gives us that opportunity to go out with a new story and an additional story and be able to have something very easy to hang our hat on,” said Doak.

“We will continue to be pushing the story.”

In the six months it was on sale for in 2023, Mazda sold 2799 CX-60s at an average of 466 per month versus a target of 500 sales per month, or 6000 per year. The CX-90 is averaging about 120 sales per month against a target as high as 150 per month.

While that seems a pretty decent result in a market impacted by 2023’s rash of interest rate rises and slump in consumer confidence, Mazda Australia managing director Vinesh Bhindi told carsales better results were expected in the future.

“We have to do a job in terms of establishing the nameplates and I am satisfied with our progress so far, but these things do take time,” he cautioned.

“I think there is still potential left that we will uncover in the time to come and when all four nameplates are in the market.

“We are happy with how our dealer network has embraced it and engaged with it, satisfied with our numbers… That is where we are at and we have potential and opportunity.”

Mazda Australia is one of very few Mazda divisions globally to sell all four LPG models.

But its push upmarket has placed a focus on whether it can maintain more than 100,000 sales per annum and retain second in the market behind Toyota.

Kia has made it clear it fancies taking Mazda’s spot on the podium and by 2025 it will have a big range of EVs and its first ute to help achieve that goal.

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